Fast food businesses such as McDonalds and KFC will no longer be able to use a fast track process to sponsor foreign workers on temporary visas, the federal government has announced.
"Australian workers, particularly young Australians, must be given priority," Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said in a statement on Thursday.
Mr Dutton has ended the Fast Food Industry Labour Agreement, introduced by the Gillard government in 2012, which has allowed hundreds of foreign workers take jobs at fast food outlets across Australia.
However Labor employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor said Mr Dutton has oversold the effect of the change on Australians' job prospects.
"There may be a very limited number of 457 visas that were in the fast food (sector) in managerial positions, in skilled positions at a time of low unemployment - if he’s tending to that, fine," he said.
"What he shouldn’t do is misrepresent the situation."
According to figures published by The Daily Telegraph newspaper, in the past four years this agreement has only drawn around 500 foreign workers to Australia.
At a press conference in Canberra, Mr Dutton confirmed that no semi-skilled workers were covered under these agreements.
"It’s people who would be involved in the running of the business - it might be managers or they might be performing other tasks in these organisations," he said.
Labour agreements such as those which have been used by the fast food sector are the only pathway for semi-skilled workers to obtain temporary work visas in Australia.
There are still labour agreements in place for the restaurant, fishing, meat, on-hire, dairy, pork, snow sport and religious sectors.
The exact number and circumstances around these labour agreements remain a secret, despite a Senate Committee - including Coalition Senators - recommending in March last year that they should be made public.
Individual fast food businesses will still be able to make requests under normal 457 visa arrangements to cover situations where there may still be labour shortages.
"Genuine business needs for overseas workers which contribute to economic growth will still be considered," Mr Dutton said.
Existing foreign workers will be forced to leave Australia once their agreements run out unless their employer isable to present an individual case as to why they should remain in the country.
- with AAP
